Having a variable with the same name in two unrelated classes is fine, but do the same thing within a class hierarchy and you'll get confusion at best, chaos at worst. Perhaps even worse is the case where a child class field varies from the name of a parent class only by case.

This rule ignores private parent class members, but in all other such cases, the child class field should be renamed.

Noncompliant Code Example

public class Fruit {
  protected Season ripe;
  protected Color flesh;

  // ...
}

public class Raspberry extends Fruit {
  private boolean ripe;  // Noncompliant
  private static Color FLESH; // Noncompliant
}

Compliant Solution

public class Fruit {
  protected Season ripe;
  protected Color flesh;

  // ...
}

public class Raspberry extends Fruit {
  private boolean ripened;
  private static Color FLESH_COLOR;
}